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If you have permissions to administer a chat portlet, you will see an Admin Chat link beneath the list of chat rooms. Leaders of a campus group will be able to administer a chat portlet on any of the group's pages.

NOTE: At this time, the Chat Admin only works in Internet Explorer (5.5 and later) for Windows OS.

NOTE: The chat portlet includes a built-in help option. Please be aware that some of the features described in these help screens are not available through myColby. This includes moderated chat rooms, private chat rooms, invitations, and room security.

To administer a chat portlet, click on the Admin Chat link to open the Chat Admin window.

Manage Chat Rooms

At the top of the window, you will see a list of chat rooms. For each chat room you will see its ID number, name, topic, attributes (not changeable -- all chat rooms are "persistent", meaning the room will remain open to users when the owner/creator leaves the room), along with icons to perform the following functions:

Delete a chat room: Click on the (delete) icon. You will be asked "are you sure you want to delete room?" Click on OK.

Manage a chat room: Click on the (manage) icon. This will display a list of everyone who is currently connected to the chat. You can Kick a current user out of the chat room. This will immediately remove the person from the chat room, but they could re-enter.Ban a current user from the chat room. This will not remove them immediately from the current chat, if they are connected, but once they leave, they cannot re-enter the chat room. Their name will appear in a Banned Users list, just under the Chatting Users list. You can click on the (Unban) icon to reinstate them.Kick & Ban a user at the same time. If the users is currently in the chat room, they will be removed immediately and cannot re-enter.Unban a previously banned users to allow them back into the chat room.Above the list of Chatting Users are options related to banning a user. You can ban by name, IP address or both. If you enter text in the Reason box, this will be displayed in the messages window, and to the banned user when banning or unbanning that person. NOTE: If you select the From Site checkbox, that will prohibit the user (or IP) address from accessing any chat room in this chat portlet. Their name will appear in the Banned Users box under the General Settings section of the admin window. The user CAN access other chat portlets in myColby.

Erase messages: All entries in a chat room are saved until specifically deleted by the administrator (unless you have checked the White Board setting under General Settings-see below). To erase the messages, click on the (erase messages) icon. A confirmation window will open, reading "Are you sure you would like to erase transcript for Room ID#?" Click OK to erase messages. NOTE: This cannot be undone! You may first want to save a transcript of the chat room:~ Enter the chat room whose transcript you want to save.~ In the message toolbar (just below the dialogue area), click on the (save) icon. ~ Depending on your browser settings, the .txt file will be downloaded to your computer, or you will be asked if you want to open the file or save to disk.

Create a New Chat Room

In the Create a New Room section, enterRoom Name - This will appear in the chat portlet as the link users will click to enter the chat room.Room Topic - This will appear on the list of chat rooms in the Chat Admin window.

Click on Create.

General Settings

There are several general settings you can customize for a chat portlet. These apply to all chat rooms in this instance of the chat portlet.

Max Users - This sets the maximum number of users that can be in the chat portlet at once.

Max Rooms - This sets the maximum number of number of chat rooms that can be added to the chat portlet.

Max User Rooms - This sets the maximum number of rooms that can be created by one person.

Max Room Name Length - This sets the maximum length of a room name. If you try to enter a name that is too long, the room is not created when you click Create.

Reg. Only - DO NOT CHECK THIS BOX! When this is checked, only "registered" users with a password can log-in. Users in myColby are not being managed in the portal itself, but rather being passed in automatically from the college's database records. If you check this box, users will get an error message that says "User[name] is not registered."

White Board - When this is checked, all messages in a room will be deleted when the last user leaves the room. NOTE: Do not check this box if you ever want to save the contents of a chat room!

Abusive Words - This allows you to enter a list of words to be rejected by the server. If a user uses one of these words and clicks Send, a window will pop-up reading "Your message was rejected by the server: you used an abusive word which is restricted."

Min Msg Interval - This sets the minimum time interval (in milliseconds) between 2 consecutive messages to protect against "flooding".

Restricted Names - This allows you to enter a list of user names that can't be used (even as a part of a user name) to access a chat room. If any part of a user's name matches a name on this list, they will see a message that reads "Illegal User Name: it matched a restricted word: [lists the name here]." This is case sensitive.

Banned Users - If you selected the Site checkbox under the options for banning a user or IP address, when you ban someone, their user name will appear in the Banned Users box. That user will get a "You are banned from entering [Chat Room Name]." when they try to enter a chat room. You can remove them from this list by highlighting their name, pressing Backspace or Delete and clicking the Update button. You can also type in names here (one per line_ and click on update to ban a user when they are not connected to the chat.

Banned IPs - If you selected the Site checkbox under the options for banning a user or IP address, when you ban an IP address, it will appear in the Banned IPs box. That user will get a "This IP address is banned from entering [Chat Room Name]." when they try to enter a chat room from that address. You can remove them from this list by highlighting the IP address, pressing Backspace or Delete and clicking the Update button.

Send a Message to All Users

You can send a message to all users currently in any chat room in this instance of the chat portlet.